Extrapolation Gone Wrong: the Case of the Fermat Primes
Samuel Arbesman recently wrote about incorrect mathematical conjectures. I wanted to add one of my favorites, which came up in my math history class a couple weeks ago.
Computer Scientist Tells Mathematicians How To Write Proofs
Believe it or not, I do have friends who would describe themselves as not liking math, and every so often one of them will share this meme on Facebook: And then Satan said, "Put the alphabet in math." There are different background pictures each time the meme pops up, but the text is always the [...]
A Picture of Health [Video] - The 64th Annual Lindau Meeting
Nature Video presents four short films and an overview trailer on this summer's Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, which brought early-career biologists together with Nobel Prize–winners
Tools for Evaluating Scholarly Journals
In an information-rich age, one of my main functions as a librarian isn't helping people find material, but helping them evaluate the material they find.
2014 on Track to Be Hottest Year on Record
NOAA data suggests that 2014 is on a trend to edge out 2010 as the warmest year on record globally
Ig Nobel Prizes Make You Laugh, Then Think
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—What happens in the brains of people who see Jesus in a piece of toast? What are the physics of slipping on a banana peel?
How We Made Contact Lenses Comfortable and Safe
He would dab on a bit of cocaine to anesthetize his eyes first. Then, to prevent air getting in, Müller would insert the lenses with his eyes under water.
Physics Titan Still Thinks String Theory Is "On the Right Track"
At a 1990 conference on cosmology, I asked attendees, who included folks like Stephen Hawking, Michael Turner, James Peebles, Alan Guth and Andrei Linde, to nominate the smartest living physicist.
7 Amazing Google Science Fair Projects
Tonight, Google will announce the winners of its fourth annual Google Science Fair, which Scientific American co-sponsors. Watch the awards ceremony here live.
300,000-Plus People March for Climate Action, In Pictures
The Sunday morning rush hour is not usually known for packing people into subway cars like sardines. But September 21, 2014 was not your average Sunday commute as hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, Americans from across the country and foreign contingents converged on Columbus Circle and Central Park West for the People’s Climate March.
Einstein's "Time Dilation" Prediction Verified
Experiments at a particle accelerator have confirmed the "time dilation" effect predicted by Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity
Physicists on Ice: Exploring the Physics of Curling
Last Friday I joined a contingent of Caltech physicists (including the Time Lord) for an afternoon of curling — yeah, you heard me, curling — in honor of Caltech theoretical physicist Mark Wise‘s 60th birthday.